purging 50% of res at chage times ???

[SYROUS]

anyone just change half there res to keep beneficial microbes etc.... or does that matter if your using a enzyme product?? recirculation if your pH and ec/ppm are stable why not save half nutes???

 

[rbahadosingh]

anyone just change half there res to keep beneficial microbes etc.... or does that matter if your using a enzyme product?? recirculation if your pH and ec/ppm are stable why not save half nutes???

why would you just change half? you dont know what nutrients are used/absorbed when the plants are fed. they could use a certain amount of this and a little of that. just change the whole res.

 

[SYROUS]

why would you just change half? you dont know what nutrients are used/absorbed when the plants are fed. they could use a certain amount of this and a little of that.
when using a media like rockwool biology shows up spores,microbes etc,the roots know they,re there and exude sugars to entice them to colonize,this means that all the inorganic nutrient solution that percolates through the media arrives back at the resevoir with biology thriving,this is a good thing,it means there is a healthy microbial population out colonizing pathogenic microflora,this is a great reason NOT to disinfect a recirculating nutrient solution unless a variable goes out of balance and root die off occurs

it has been discovered tat plants spend 25%of their growing energy excreting sugars to feed microbes,microbes in turn feed plant ions specific to the exaduates released from the plant, so the plant feeds the recirculated waters microbes its waste which then sends back the necessary ions back to the plant

 

[robjones1]

anyone just change half there res to keep beneficial microbes etc.... or does that matter if your using a enzyme product?? recirculation if your pH and ec/ppm are stable why not save half nutes???

Are you running organic nutes? I would say this is a good idea you have and Ive thought of it myself too, however a 50% may be overkill. The idea for the rez changeout is to dump all of the unknown that have built up in there with all of the top offs, adjustments, leeching, feeding and evap. Change it all, start at a known point again, however, if you want to save the beneficials, I feeel you dont need much of the orig res water to do so. Say a 10% save, plus if you think about it, much of your media (rookwool, coco etc) has many of the bene's in there too.

Save 10% or less and you should have a lot of the community in there I think...

 

[SYROUS]

yeah i think im gonna try it ,theres just gonna be alot more testing and adjusting it makes sense, but then back to the does it even matter if im using a zyme product question???

 

[kingme]

i dont change res somtimes for 2-3 weeks and never had a problem. i also have had periods i change every week. Let them tell you what they need. i can tell you this. Their is no reason what so ever to use full nutrients that the manfacture sets. they dont need that potent of nutrients at any time. I have learned from different people that you need to monitor what the plants want. Not what the demand is set by the manufacture. Its taking notes and seeing what the plants need is the key. Also this allows you to save money on nutrients. Monitor those ppms and see what the plants are eating. That is the key. Now im a firm believer that you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink. These are not methods that i have came up with but i do follow them. get a good ppm meter and see what they want. if the ppm goes down they are taking in more nutrients. if the ppm goes up then they are absorbing more water then nutrients. I have noticed this in my clones that they need less nutrients, sure enough they were burned a few days later. im glad i dilluted a tit.

 

[SYROUS]

thanx bro ,+rep

 

[kingme]

yeap np man. also best advice i ever got on here was from some guy, i was all bummed that i got a male and he suggested to like experiment on it. so heh, i did bro. best learning experience ive had and awesome advice.

 

[SYROUS]

okay so i havent changed the res since dec 3/2010 its jan 4 now ,no problems but i am changing today its getting a touch grimy and i dont want to lose speed with problems check my journal for pics of the plants,i just topped up and adjusted daily, they are thriving

 

[Ronjohn7779]

Purge your res every 2 weeks, but check for ph and EC swings several times a day. If you have a larger res you'll change it less and have less ph and ec swings.